Liza Lim (born 30 August 1966) is an Australian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. Lim writes concert music ( chamber and orchestral works) as well as

music theatre Music theatre is a performance genre that emerged over the course of the 20th century, in opposition to more conventional genres like opera and musical theatre. The term came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s to describe an avant-garde approach ...

and has collaborated with artists on installation and

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

projects. Her work reflects her interests in Chinese culture and the aesthetics of

Aboriginal art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, ro ...

and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.

Early life and education

Liza Lim 林瑞玲 was born in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia, to Chinese parents. They were doctors who during her early years spent time working and studying in

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

, and she was sent to boarding school. At the age of 11, she was encouraged by her teachers at

Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne (PLC), is an independent, private, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for girls, located in Burwood, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1875 at East Melbourne, PLC was on ...

to turn from piano and violin to composition. Lim earned her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

, her

Master of Music The Master of Music (MM or MMus) is, as an academic title, the first graduate degree in music awarded by universities and conservatories. The MM combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually performance in singing or i ...

from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

(1996), and her

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus ...

(1986). She studied composition in Melbourne with Richard David Hames and Riccardo Formosa and in Amsterdam with Ton de Leeuw.

Career

Lim has been a guest lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer School, the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

, and the

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of Avant-garde music, avant garde and Electroacoustic ...

Agora Festival. She was a lecturer of

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

at Melbourne University in 1991. Lim was the guest curator for the twilight concert series of the 2006

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

. Lim has been commissioned by performers including the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

(for whom she wrote ''Ecstatic Architecture'' for the inaugural season of the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 23, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Av ...

), Ensemble InterContemporain,

Ensemble Modern Ensemble Modern is an international ensemble dedicated to performing and promoting the music of contemporary composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countri ...

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

Arditti String Quartet The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. They ...

, and Cikada Ensemble. Her work has featured at the ,

MaerzMusik MaerzMusik is a festival of the Berliner Festspiele and has been held annually since March 2002 at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other venues. It is the successor festival to the Musik-Biennale Berlin and is considered one of the most impo ...

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featu ...

, and several Australian festivals. Since 1986, Lim has worked with members of the

ELISION Ensemble The ELISION Ensemble (often referred to as simply ELISION) is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music, concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works. The ensemble comprises a core of around 20 virtuoso musicia ...

; she is married to Daryl Buckley, its artistic director. In 2005, Lim was appointed the composer-in-residence with the

Sydney Symphony Orchestra The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney. With roots going back to 1908, the orchestra was made a permanent professional orchestra on the formation of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932. ...

for two years. Among other works, the orchestra commissioned—jointly with the radio station

Bayerischer Rundfunk (; "Bavarian Broadcasting"), shortened to BR (), is a public broadcasting, public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Bavaria, Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD (b ...

—her work ''The Compass''; in its premiere performance on 23 August 2006 at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

it was conducted by Alexander Briger and William Barton played the

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

. Sponsored by the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; ), founded in 1925, is a joint organization of German universities and student bodies to foster their international relations. Since 1 January 2020, the president has been Joybrato Mukherjee. Organisa ...

, she spent one year in 2007/2008 as artist-in-residence in Berlin where she developed her third opera, '' The Navigator'', inspired by ''Tristan and Isolde'' to a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Patricia Sykes. She was appointed professor in composition at the

University of Huddersfield The University of Huddersfield is a public research university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It has been a University since 1992, but has its origins in a series of institutions dating back to the 19th century. It has made te ...

in March 2008. In February 2017, she was appointed to the composition unit at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) — formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, and known by the moniker "The Con" — is the music school of the University of Sydney. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious music ...

, where she is the Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music.

Selected works

Stage works

* 1991–93 ''The Oresteia. A Memory Theatre'', opera * 1994–95 ''Bar-do'i-thos-grol'', 7-night installation performance based on '' The Tibetan Book of the Dead'', artist Domenico de Clario * 1991–99 ''Yuè Lìng Jié (Moon Spirit Feasting)'', A Chinese ritual street opera, libretto by Beth Yahp * 2005 ''Glass House Mountains'', installation work with artist Judy Watson * 2008 ''The Navigator'', opera for 5 singers, 16 instruments and electronics, libretto by Patricia Sykes

Orchestra works

* 1994–95 ''Sri-Vidya, Utterances of Adoration'' for choir and orchestra * 1996 ''The Alchemical Wedding'' for orchestra (22 instruments) * 2001–02 ''Ecstatic Architecture'', commissioned for the inaugural season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall * 2004 ''Immer Fliessender (Ever Flowing)'', a companion-piece for Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony * 2005 ''Flying Banner'', "Fanfare" for orchestra, after Wang To * 2005–06 ''The Compass'' for orchestra with flute and didgeridoo soloists * 2010 ''Pearl, Ochre, Hair String'' for orchestra * 2010 ''The Guest'' for orchestra with

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

soloist

Ensemble works

* 1988–89 ''Garden of Earthly Desire'' for flute, oboe, clarinet, electric guitar, mandolin, harp, violin, viola, violoncello, contrabass, percussion * 1989 ''Voodoo Child'' for soprano solo, flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin, violoncello, trombone, piano, percussion * 1990 ''Diabolical Birds'' for piccolo, bass clarinet, piano, violin, violoncello, vibraphone * 1993 ''Li Shang Yin'' for coloratura soprano, 15 instruments * 1995 ''Street of Crocodiles'' for flute, oboe, alto saxophone, alto trombone, cimbalom/cymbal, violin, viola, violoncello, baroque violoncello * 1999 ''Veil'' for flute/bass flute, bass clarinet, trumpet in C, percussion, piano, violin, violoncello * 2001 ''Machine'' for Contacting the Dead for twenty-seven instruments * 2005 ''Songs Found in Dream'' for oboe, bass clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, 2 percussion, viola, cello * 2005 ''Mother Tongue'' for soprano and 15 instruments, poems by Patricia Sykes * 2006 ''Shimmer Songs'' for string quartet, harp, 3 percussion * 2006 ''City of Falling Angels'' for 12 percussion * 2007 ''Sensorium'' for soprano, C-tenor recorders, baroque harp, viola d'amore * 2010–11 ''Tongue of the Invisible'', a work for improvising pianist, baritone and 16 musicians * 2014 ''Winding Bodies: 3 Knots'' for alto flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, violoncello and double bass

Chamber music

* 1996 ''Inguz (Fertility)'' for clarinet in A, violoncello * 1997 ''The Heart's Ear'' for flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello * 1999 ''Sonorous Bodies'' for koto and voice solo, in collaboration with video artist Judith Wright * 2004 ''In the Shadow's Light'' for string quartet, commissioned by Festival d'automne à Paris for the Kairos Quartett * 2004–05 ''The Quickening'' for soprano and qin, commissioned by the Festival d'Automne à Paris * 2008 ''Ochred String'' for oboe, viola, cello, double bass * 2013–14 ''The Weaver's Knot'' for string quartet

Solo works

* 1992 ''Amulet'' for viola solo * 1997 ''Philtre for Hardanger'' fiddle solo or retuned violin * 2007 ''Wild Winged–one'' for solo trumpet * 2007 ''Weaver–of–Fictions'' for alto Ganassi recorder * 2007 ''The Long Forgetting'' for tenor Ganassi recorder * 2008 ''Well of Dreams'' for solo alto trombone * 2008 ''Sonorous Body'' for solo B clarinet * 2011 ''Love Letter'' for solo instrument

Awards and nominations

In 2007, Lim's Sydney Symphony Composer Residency was nominated for an APRA Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual, her piece ''Mother Tongue'' was nominated for Best Composition by an Australian Composer, and her piece ''Flying Banner (After Wang To)'' won the Orchestral Work of the Year Award. In 2018, Lim won the Don Banks Music Award, which honours a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia.

Other awards

*1996

Australia Council Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

fellowship *1996 Young Australian Creative Fellowship *2002 APRA Classical Music Award for Best Composition *2004 Paul Lowin Award for ''Ecstatic Architecture'' *2023

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the

King's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning monarch's official birthday in each realm by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are ...

*2024

Australian Laureate Fellowship The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. In 2023 8 industry-focused Laureate Fellowships were awarded for the ...

References

External links

*
Australian Music Centre artist pageRicordi composer biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Liza 1966 births 20th-century Australian classical composers 21st-century Australian classical composers APRA Award winners Members of the Order of Australia Australian expatriates in Brunei Australian expatriates in England Australian expatriates in Germany Australian expatriates in the United States Australian people of Chinese descent Australian women classical composers Australian opera composers Women opera composers Living people Victorian College of the Arts alumni University of Melbourne alumni Academic staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music 20th-century Australian women composers 21st-century Australian women composers